Addressing the Nigerian Film Industry.


Someone read my blog and got back to me with a, "oh my gosh, you seemed so angry..". Lol!! I was. As I mentioned, I use this blog to deal with certain things and often times to check that I am not loco with the thoughts running through my mind. But, that is done. That is over and we are moving on.

Yes, I am feeling better now, at least, you can hear me clearly. I had the flu or something akin to flu with the resulting extremely high body temperature, nausea, cough, stuffy nose and loss of apetite. (Now, you can't keep me away from food - this is for Eddie (double wink)).

Okay, during the period that I was recuperating, I spent my time catching up on my Nigerian Movies particularly the ones in which Genevieve Nnaji is the main actress.
I got a chance to watch together as one. A brief synopsis of the movie is that the Genevieve character was being beaten by her teacher in class and he poked out her eyes and because she has one eye, it was assumed that no one will be willing to marry her. The Igwe's (chief) verdict on the situation was that the teacher was going to marry her. The teacher didn't want to, he internally rebelled and used his anger at his situation as his permission to abuse her. He beat her up several times, made her sleep on the floor, TOOK AWAY HER VOICE within the relationship and locked her out of the house. Of course, each time he abused her, she was made to stay back in the relationship because of her kinsmen. It turned out that the teacher was in love with someone else,so that was the excuse given in the movie for his animalistic behavior.

Fast forward, the other woman that he is in love with learns that he is married and dumps him and he decides that he wants to get back with his wife (how convenient - roll eyes) , who has no option but to put up with his behind. He sweet talks her, she accepts it and conveniently forgets that behind this NEW sweet mask is an animal waiting to be unleashed. An animal that she has seen several times.


At first, after watching the movie - I was like "HOW SWEET". Then, it got me really thinking - " what the ----". This isn't sweet. I am brushing abuse off with a wave of my hand. It got me thinking of Nollywood and its treatment of women within its movies. Nneoma, on her blog, has discussed this topic quite thoroughly and I really do not have that much to add to it. I decided to leave Gene movies and move to other Nollywood movies and I saw the same thing: women being characterised into being either the devil, angel, overly sexualized beings,good, bad etc. I wondered when Nollywood will start giving some depth to its female characters. Women aren't one dimensional characters. I want to see the humanity within women. Women like me - nice, kind but with a slight evil streak that could pop out. I want a Nollywood , in which women are not made out to be the victims of men's caprices or societies whims. A Nollywood in which women are allowed to make decisions and women's decision making power is not put within the arena of being evil.

It got me really thinking:

a) How can we change Nollywood to make it really women friendly?

b) Are there Nolly wood movies that you can recommend that has some depth? Seriously, I am still recuperating, so I need to watch something good that makes me go wow. If I see one more One sided Characterization - I will literally SCREAM in my bedroom. Trust me, you don't want that to happen.


Excerpt of Together As One.